Archive for April, 2007

Let me just say off the bat that I am a screaming Monkees fangirl, so everytime I hear a Monkees song in an episode of Haromoni@ it makes my day. (Mike Nesmith I loooove you!) LOL!

Anyway onto the episode! Tsuji is a guest member this episode, and her lamb ears were just too damn kawaii! Koharu and Aika are absent from this group (and as we learn at the end of the episode) apparently are off on an adventure of their own. The mystery item of this episode is a flat circular piece of marble that apparently smells like cookies. (I thought it was a cutting board at first sight).

The first stop of this episode was a long shopping arcade. A short way in Tsuji spotted a croquet stand, which she was extremely excited about stopping at and eating. The owner of said shop was also EXTREMELY excited to see the girls. I know I would be as well! Tsuji decided to try the mystery kujira croquet…. which is apparently whale?! I’ll pass thanks.

Shortly thereafter they come across a banner featuring photos of an older man and others dressed in rather bizarre cosplay. I’m not sure if they were told he had just left or not, but they then spot him walking away down the arcade. Tsuji and Sayumi are then tapped by Akachin to go hunt him out. (Actually Tsuji is at first and protests about going alone so Akachin tags Sayumi to go with her). They finally track him down in a sports store (Kimochi ga warui!)

Next the girls stopped at a retro appliance & electronic shop. Wow! Now, we still have in our house one of the old wooden floor model TVs from the very late 70s early 80s. The thing is monstrous and ancient, but the stuff in this shop was like more than a decade older. Rabbit ears? Next they came across a mysterious sign by a large circular flat looking concrete stump. Eri was once again tapped to discover the meaning of ALONE. She suceeded in finding someone who knew about the sign, but forgot to find out what the mysterious word “Gamu” was. She dragged Miki back to discover the answer. It was (I guess) the seed pod on top of cattails. What this had to do with anything perhaps someone else could elaborate.

And now for this episodes mystery item! They stop at cake shop Sugar Rose where the head chef Isago-san gives them a demonstration of it’s purpose. The marble plate sits atop a spindle which can be used to rotate the plate. A cake is set on top (in this case a cheesecake) and the plate spins for easier frosting. I loved Hitomi’s face at this revelation. The girls are then given a piece of cheesecake each to enjoy!

At the end of the episode Aika and Koharu were revealed to be off on a mission of their own, visiting a temple? Perhaps we’ll discover their purpose in the next episode!

This episode the girls are given another mystery object of which they must uncover it’s use, and also sent on a scavenger hunt. Poor Eri was sent to find the location of Hesomagari on her own! I loved Miki’s abrupt “Ike!” And who can believe that guy was 72?!

Akachin bounced himself right out of his stroller, which was quite amusing. On their way to the next spot they came across a lady and her dog, who at command could climb up on it’s master’s back and ride piggy-back. Cute!

The second quest was to find an anchor, which Mitsui took off for when she spotted it. (I had to look the word up). They stopped at a 100 yen machine selling either noise amplifiers or mini radios. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but after trying several times Hitomi came out the winner. Miki was quite disappointed with her mini-knife charm.

Next stop was an Oden restuarant where the girls stopped to find out why it was named (I guess) “mazuiya” which means “unappetising”. Poor Eri was sent on her own once more. Oh My God, the tako looked so damn good.

Last but not least was to uncover the purpose of the mystery object. Turns out it is the mold for plastic strawberries to go on the oh-so-real but oh-so-fake meals restaurants display at their window to attract customers. Quite interesting as I have always wondered how those were made. The girls then got the chance to create their own sample crepes. (I LOVE CREPES!)

So the rumors were true! Tsuji has been placed in a new ganguro gal unit titled “Gyaruru” with other personalities Tokito Ami and Gyaru Sone. Full story at Hello!Online. If the article is true and they will focus in ganguro and para para culture and music I can’t wait to see what they bring to the table. Fast beats and dance songs? Count me in!

Preview of the first song BOOM BOOM Meccha Maccho (Live version) can also be downloaded as well from the article above. A great dance beat to be sure, I can’t wait to see the PV! I really love this song!

The fashions will be interesting to see, and I’m really glad that Tsuji is moving on. I’m so happy for her and will definitely be pre-ordering the single!In site news: Expect reviews of the latest 2 Haromoni@ episodes sometime this week. I was at Anime Boston all weekend and am still crashing from the trip.

I got tired of blogger constantly eating my posts, something that had caused me to slack off in blogging lately. After all, why post if it’s going to disappear the moment I hit publish?

So I moved my butt over to wordpress. Which is where you are now or you wouldn’t be reading this. It’s quite nice to have everything working! As such the other sections on hello!girl are now gone, but I probably would have only updated them once in a blue moon anyhow.

I am also going through my old lj posts and moving any H!P or Momusu posts here.

I am going to try and post something at least every Sunday morning. It’s the quietest time of the week for me, so it might work out. So! Onto the H!P related stuff from this week!

I finally got around to cracking open the Hello! Project 2007 Winter concert boxset, and watched the first concert DVD, Wonderful Hearts Otome Gocoro, which might just have pushed the 2005 H!P winter concert out of the number one slot as my favorite H!P concert. I’ve yet to watch the Shuketsu! 10th Anniversary concert, so we’ll see. The costumes were adorable, the song selection was fantastic, I loved it.

Haromoni@. I watched the first show this morning. So damn cute! So the premise of the episode was the girls dressed up in animal ears and tails and going on some sort of scavenger hunt lead my the show’s mascot, Akachin, in a stroller. It was nice to see all the girls together and interacting. Note how Ai-chan is identified as Bambi. LOL! Koharu is fearless I think. An admirable quality.

I also loved how they totally abandoned Akachin to watch out for the ice cream truck… and the image of Hitomi running after it was a riot. Ice cream does take priority you know.

And what the hell is an ice dog? It appears ice cream in a warm hotdog bun. Would that even taste good? Sayumi scaring the crap out of that little kid was funny as well. Does anyone have any idea what the hell that machine with the rollers was making at the end?

On the news front…..

It seems (as reported at Totally Hello! Project) that all traces of Aibon have been removed from the Hello! Project official site, save pictures of her on CDs. I don’t know about you, but that seems a bit drastic to me, as if they were trying to erase all evidence that she existed as an idol in their agency at all. It’s a shame. There was a time when she was a perfect idol for them, and for that I think they should have left her with the credit she deserves for the work she did.